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Toledo Talk   (musing about Lake Erie West and beyond)
From billy's workspace   

Is anyone's business doing anything to help with the gasoline crunch?

From the Blade -

http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080529/BUSINESS03/805290342

As gas prices continue to rise, more employers are helping their workers save money on fuel bills.

Many businesses are giving workers gas cards, organizing car pools, or offering shorter workweeks and work-from-home options, to relieve travel expenses.

With gas hovering near $4 a gallon, business are just trying to keep workers happy, and to keep productivity up, said several labor experts. But little of that kind of help seems to be happening in the Toledo area.

Representatives from Owens Corning, The Andersons Inc., and other area firms said their companies are not providing assistance.

Not that I feel that a business has any responsibility to assist their workers in this area (and Im sure OC and Andersons are feeling the crunch themselves with as much as they must have to pay to transport their material) Im just wondering if anyone's employers are coming up with anything?

I know for one, my mother in law is now working from home via computer.

created by billy on May 30, 2008 at 10:11:20 am     Comments: 12

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Comments ... #

My wife's work has certainly helped on gas prices by letting her stay at home.

Unfortunately, she works at a daycare. Ba-dum-pshh!

posted by TheTalentedMrC on May 30, 2008 at 10:31:58 am     #



A buddy of mine's workplace is trying to go to 10 hour shifts 4days a week. Hope so for his sake, he drives over 35min a day each way.

I'm fortunate that I just started a job 3-4 blocks from my house and I can work from home most of the time.

posted by jshriver on May 30, 2008 at 12:19:40 pm     #



I can walk to work. What I don't have a clue how to handle is an annual August trip to Bristol TN. Reservations made and paid for. Gotta go or lose the money. Our comfy conversion travel van gets a generous 11 mpg. The Miata gets about 27 hwy but you can't pack more than a toothbrush. Rent a car?

posted by holland on May 30, 2008 at 12:43:16 pm     #



Years ago, the company I worked for reeled back from three shifts per day to 2 10hr shifts per day.

The place still ran 5 days per week, but with the reduction of a shift we each only needed to work 4 days.

Those with seniority quickly scooped up the fridays and mondays, so I put in to have wednesdays off...

It turned out to be perfect!! I never worked more than two days in a row. Wednesdays became the lawn mowing/laundry/running errands day, and then Saturday and Sunday I had free with no errands to do!

Later I came to hear the guys with the three day weekend every week say that those three day weekends were a strain on their wallet because with all the time off, they got bored and ended up going out and blowing money (some guy'd bitch if you hung em with a new rope...)

Anyway - If I could do it again, a 4 day week having wed, sat and sun off, I'd grab it in a heartbeat!!

posted by billy on May 30, 2008 at 01:25:07 pm     #



No, but I have made a change myself. Started making the commute by bus from Sylvania to downtown Toledo every day. $40 a month for an unlimited bus pass sure does make more sense than paying $4.00 a gallon for gas!

That's why I had to chuckle at the guy quoted in a Blade article this month who said that he told his boss he had to get a raise or he was going to stop coming to work. The dude lives in the Old West End, for crying out loud...suck it up and take the bus. Multiple routes pass through the OWE. (I occasionally use 1 or 2 of those routes myself.)

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080507/NEWS11/805070429
(The article I was referring to.)

posted by mom2 on May 30, 2008 at 07:15:25 pm     #



We who drive for a living on a mileage rate are finding out there's going to be no adjustment. My boss is frankly angry that I've taken off time to obtain a more gas-efficient vehicle. Well, he won't pay any more for mileage, so something's got to give.

posted by GuestZero on May 31, 2008 at 06:41:49 pm     #



Having moved from the Toledo area three years ago to the deep south I've noticed a lot of things different. It's a small town of about 8,000 people it's the kind of place where everyone knows everyone else.

About six weeks ago we started noticing a number of townspeople were riding golf carts about town, going to work, errands or just grocery shopping at the local Food Lion. It started with an occasional sighting and now it's common to see a half dozen parked in front of the grocery store as people shop.

The mayor started riding about town in a golf cart and that really fired everyone up. More and more people getting used golf carts every day.

I started riding mine last Tuesday.

We're not the size of Toledo but we're small enough where I am less then 12 minutes from the farthest city limit from downtown. From my house I can be anywhere I would want to be in less the 18 minutes.

I calculate I am saving 2 gallons a day by taking the golf cart to work. I don't live far but I usually come home for lunch and then go back after dinner. Two to three trips a day is the norm and for no farther then what it is it sure eats gasoline.

Driving takes me 8 minutes while the golf cart takes me 12 to 15 but I really enjoy the golf cart more then my vehicle especially since I am saving enough on gas every week ($35-$40) where the wife and I can go out to dinner.

Cops are cool they simply ask no golf carts on state highways, drive to the right, obey traffic laws like top signs and don't be an idiot.

Imagine this happening in Ohio. You're right, never would because the cops couldn't contain their glee at the opportunity to give tickets, impound vehicles, enhance city revenue and if they are lucky maybe even give a citizen a sound beating for dissing some officer.

Our mayor rides around in a golf cart he owns. Toledo mayor rides around in a chauffeured 8 mpg limo at taxpayer expense.

posted by Extoledoan on Jun 01, 2008 at 12:36:05 am     #



GZ...I have to tell you that I've always been so curious as to what you did for a living. (Note - I'm not asking you to actually state your profession...that's none of my business, just pointing out that I've had idle curiosity about it.)

I think its because of the way you have described yourself and your lifestyle. lol

posted by mom2 on Jun 01, 2008 at 12:36:49 am     #



Imagine this happening in Ohio. You're right, never would because the cops couldn't contain their glee at the opportunity to give tickets, impound vehicles, enhance city revenue and if they are lucky maybe even give a citizen a sound beating for dissing some officer.
-----------------------------------

YES!! OheilO, where no reason,intelligence,business-friendliness, or fun is allowed! 100% correct. Like the comparison of your mayor on the cart and Carty in the 8-mpg v-8, too (Jeep, more than likely).

posted by Darkseid on Jun 01, 2008 at 08:29:28 am     #



Darkseid,

The citizens and politicians in Ohio seem to have ceeded control of their bureaucracy to the bureaucracy through the public employee unions. What a mess the people of Ohio have. An absolute mess, that is only going to get a lot worse, with no way out.

The funny thing is state government has known an entrenched bureaucracy keeps business from the state and have even implemented a few feeble attempts to fix the problem as in this feeble, half farted attempt from 2006.

http://www.odod.state.oh.us/newsroom/2005pr/releases/1330.asp

So what became of this? Yet another bureaucracy was created to study how to reduce the bureaucracy in Ohio in order to attract businesses to the state! So typical a response from weak, ineffectual politicians.

One thing Toledo and Ohio can do to reduce budget is get rid of some cops. I don't have anything against the highway patrol or cops in general but the sheer quantity of numbers Ohio has on the roads is embarrassing to me and I no longer live there.

I have actually done this, the drive home is 900 miles and takes me through 5 states of which the final 200 is in Ohio. When counting cops on the road Ohio always has TWICE as many cops on the final 25% of the trip as the entire trip through all those other states.

Coming from another state you would think Ohio was some part of communist China, North Korea or Cuba or something. I am not making stuff up here, just stating an obvious fact and if you don't believe me try driving the trip yourself.

On one trip we counted 16 highway patrol cars in the first 50 miles after crossing the river. Is this really necessary for public safety or is it part of an Ohio full employment strategy for police officers?

I understand they give tickets paying their own way but it just looks bad, know what I mean?

posted by Extoledoan on Jun 01, 2008 at 09:27:40 am     #



So, GZ, what is your mileage reimbursement?

Mine is somewhere in the high 30 cents per mile.

Corporate says "write off the difference between that and govt/IRS on your taxes". I pointed out that I CAN'T write it off, I don't have/make enough for itemized deductions like that.

I've had times where I drove 320+ miles inside of two days for work all around NWOH. Carrying about 250 pounds of gear for work inside my trunk.

posted by anonymouscoward on Jun 01, 2008 at 11:09:49 pm     #



Mom2, I'm the kind of guy that shows up at your site to install phone and data wiring (inside and out, all sizes), as well as more esoteric things like announcement speakers, phone systems, and of course more mundane things like repairing computers and printers.

(Personally, I'd rather be designing and building exoskeletons and other things which re-enable physical disabilities, but our culture demands that only degreed-people do things like that, and the same culture isn't very interested in doing those sorts of things anyway. Of course, my dream job would be "truck driver" ... in Cislunar space, shuttling cargoes from Earth to the Moon to the L points. Alas, Humanity isn't reaching outward into space, so there's that.)

AC, I get 30CPM. And you're absolutely right about the write-off thing. The standard deduction is so huge that it's impossible for a man of modest means to itemize.

About that thing with the work gear, though: I don't do that anymore. Anything I need for work gets loaded up before the job, and after the job's done it all goes back into the supply room. There was no agreement whatsoever for renting space in my truck. I don't want it in there anymore, and in addition, I don't have to endure the risk of theft. There's nothing like coming out in the morning to find your window busted in and your tools stolen. It just about makes you want to kill somebody.

P.S. AC, it's good to hear from you again. You should consider linking up with our groups on a TT or SB get-together. You're a long-term personality around these parts and would be interesting to pass the time in such a meet.

posted by GuestZero on Jun 03, 2008 at 12:02:05 pm     #